How To Build Your Own PC: Three Part Series
this should get you excited about making your computer better than your friends
Building Your Own PC:
Know-How for Do-It-Yourselfers
Imagine you want to build a new PC and want to use a few remnants from your old system. If you were satisfied with the performance of your CD-ROM drive, hard drive, printer or monitor, then it could be worth it to simply buy the remaining components - you might not even need a new case.
Many are intimidated by hardware. Some people won't even put in a new card on their own if they can help it. Yet the computer is now a mass-market product that, thankfully, has also brought about broad standardization
read the full article here with pictures
How To Build A PC, Part 1: Component Selection Overview
How To Build A PC, Part 2: Choosing the Right Vendor
How To Build A PC, Part 3: Putting It All Together
Extras:
Building a Low-Power Home Theater PC System
Building Your Home Theater Around the PC
Walkthrough - full format and install Windows XP
Found this very usefull guide to teach you how to format and install windows xp
You will want to learn how to do this after you learn how to build your computer.
quote:
In this guide we plan on walking you through the full format and install method of setting up Windows XP Home or Pro on your system. Then we will discuss what options to pick and which ones not to pick, and we will give you all of the essential optimization tips once Windows XP has been loaded on your system. This step-by-step process can be used as a reference point when you want to install a fresh copy of Windows XP and want to make it gaming-ready. This guide will be linked to from now on in my optimization guides as a reference point for essential system optimization.
http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/windows_xp_opt/
goodluck!